Charts of the Week: Sex, Skies, and Videotape

Well, I’m not sure just how I’ll work “skies” into this story, but I couldn’t get the headline out of my head, so, dear Power Line readers, I’ll think of something.

The chart of the week—and maybe the month—comes to us courtesy of the Department of Energy. For all of the talk over the last couple of decades about “energy independence,” we’re actually on course toward that somewhat dubious goal for reasons having little to do with anything that came out of Washington. As the chart shows, net U.S. energy imports are at their lowest level in 30 years. Go hug a fracker for this happy trend.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post did some useful reporting and quantitative analysis yesterday, with a story exploring the differences between Republican and Democratic sex scandals. Now this is news you can use. It is salient just now because a Republican congressman from Louisiana (why does it always seem to be from Louisiana?) was just caught on videotape . . . kissing a girl. Who is not his wife.

Anyway, the Post notes that just as Democrats and Republicans are divided on just about everything, they tend to divide over their mode of sexual transgressions as well. And here’s the data to prove it:

Not surprisingly, the Post‘s analysis concludes that sex scandals damage Democrats far less than Republicans: “All of which goes to show that cheaters do sometimes prosper, particularly if said cheater is a Democrat.” So clear skies for randy Democrats! See—I told you I could do it.